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Subscribe to RSSWhat would you value more? Mom cooking dinner for the family, or Dad killing a spider in Junior’s room?
While women are still dealing with the gender wage gap at work, when it comes to the unpaid work moms do at home, their imaginary paychecks would be bigger than those of their husbands.
As Father’s Day approaches this weekend, it’s time to take stock of what dads do for their families beyond just bringing home a paycheck. Alas, the household chores they tend to do aren't worth as much as the sweat equity moms put in at home year round, according to two recent reports.
Insure.com calculated what they deemed to be daddy duties, including things such as barbecuing, killing bugs and mowing the lawn. The study found the domestic tasks would total about $20,248 a year if they were paid work. That compared to $60,182 annually for moms for doing things such as cooking, cleaning and nursing wounds. The value of the work was based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for how much similar jobs out in the real work world would pay.
Another study by Salary.com found that the value of what working dads do at home is actually rising. The company looked at online responses from nearly 3,000 dads who reported on the number of hours they put into tasks at home, including everything from cooking to driving kids around, and found the value of what the dads did jumped to $36,757 this year from $33,858 the previous year. A previous study of work done by working moms found what the moms do at home is valued at $66,979, compared to $63,471 in 2011.
The dads in Salary.com’s sampling were doing more laundry this year, about 1.4 hours, compared to 1.2 hours in 2011; but they cut back on their kitchen time, from 2.7 hours to 2.2 hours.
Women are still the ones doing the heavy lifting at home, said Nancy Folbre, a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Massachusetts. But she cautioned against giving this type of data on what dads do too much credence.
“They underestimate both what mothers and fathers do,” she noted.
Indeed, Emmet Pierce, a spokesman of Insure.com, said his firm's research was not a scientific study but rather a “lighthearted view of fatherhood. It’s not that every dad conforms to this, but it gives a broad view of what fathers do.”
Dads are doing more around the house, but a shift from that 1950s mentality has been slow.
A study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics released last year found: “On an average day, 20 percent of men did housework — such as cleaning or doing laundry — compared with 49 percent of women. Forty-one percent of men did food preparation or cleanup, compared with 68 percent of women.” And a 2008 Gallup poll found that women are much more likely to do most of the household chores, while men are primarily taking care of the family cars and doing yardwork.
But traditional family roles are being questioned. A report released Monday by Boston College’s Center for Work & Family found that those dads who choose to stay at home with their kids made “a conscious choice and commitment to be home with their children to the benefit of their families, their wives’ careers, and their own personal fulfillment.” And the center reported 3.4 percent of at-home parents are dads today, compared to 1.7 percent 10 years ago.
“Nearly all fathers are increasingly likely to experience active caregiving, and the result will require employers to adapt their thinking and their actions regarding who needs support to do so adequately,” said Brad Harrington, author of the study and executive director of the Center for Work & Family. “This is not simply a women’s issue.”
Folbre believes that gender responsibilities as they relate to household work are being “renegotiated” but there’s still some resistance and inertia when it comes to change. “We still have a really long way to go,” she added.
Here's a rundown on what working dads do at home and the value of their household tasks from Salary.com:
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Hmm, cutting grass, shoveling snow, painting, electrical repairs, roof, soffit rain gutters, landscaping, car cleaning. appliance moving, furniture lifting, window washing on ladders, replacing caulking around windows etc, etc, etc. Don't count I guess.
If we do so little around the house how come all the flyers for Fathers day are all about tools and why is it all the flyers are full of PAMPER ME for mothers day
I know for my case, I do more IT support and car maintenance/repair that is on the list, as well as those other things. And repair shops charge a ton per hour.
Because while the number of men who both know how to do something around the house and actually do it keeps dropping, the number of men who just like to own power tools keeps growing.
I consider what my husband does around the house priceless. I get sick of these articles that beat up men. I mean come on, its Father's Day approaching and we have an article that says moms do more. My husband remodeled our home, repairs our cars, paints the house and many many other things. And as I said, I consider it priceless.
OMG!--My husband does all the "MANLY" things around the house-killing bugs, mowing lawns, fixing stuff--BUT-he also works a full time job (in 3 days) and cooks and cleans and has raised our boys into fine young men, and helps the elderly neighbors with chores.
In fact-I work a 8am-6am M-F job, grocery shop on Sat and do laundry on Sun. When I asked what can I do to help with dinner-he says " Eat it when it's done". I am allowed to put dishes away after he washes them( he doesnt believe in dishwashers or snowblowers)
The man is wonderful to me and our sons. That is why we celebrate his birthday/fathers day for about a month from 5/29 to 6/17. I can't express how much I appreciate all he does!!
I am grateful and forever thankful that my husband came into my life.
NO-ladies- he does not have a brother!!!
I'm with you Just Me. I call BS on this article.
My husband does just as much as I do around our home. Dishes, folding laundry, helping with homework, geek squad, cooking, repairs, yard work, shuttle service. The list is endless and no chore is designated as a mom or dad chore. We all chip in.
To all you wonderful Dads out there...We very much appreciate all that you do. You don't do it for the dollar value, you do it all for your family. You are priceless.
wd401, not to diminish the importance of what guys do, but I think the point is that it's the day-to-day stuff where women have you beat. Look at your list--mowing the lawn, shoveling, painting, etc. Those things are done on an as-needed basis, and/or they are seasonal. It is women who still hold the greatest responsibility for daily child care, cooking, laundry, cleaning, taking kids to school/appointments/sports, homework, etc., and in many cases, it's all in addition to a full time job away from the home. It's not to say that what you do is unimportant, it's just saying that in general, most of what guys do is not done on a daily basis. We appreciate you, nonetheless!
Only cooking I see women doing are taking there kids to McDonalds or throwing something in a microwave
Ditto to Just Me, Bethany, and Lola (except my husband hates yard work.) Not only does he work full-time to provide for our family so I can stay home with our two little ones, but when he comes home he's willing to do whatever needs to be done (distract the kids!) so I can regain my sanity. What a silly article, especially for father's day!
What about single fathers? I have my daughter more than 75% of the time, and during that time, I do 100% of the work. Oh, and I still pay $6,000/year in child support.
Oly - I have to disagree with you there. For one thing, if a woman is working she cannot claim to be fully incharge of DAILY child care. She's obviously got someone watching her kid while she's at work. Now that most homes are 2 income, I think Dads are doing the same amount of work around the house as Moms. I know my husband is.
Every morning after I leave to go to work, my husband gets our son up, gets him dressed, feeds him breakfast, brushes his teeth and drives him to preschool. He then goes to work himself. On Mondays I pick him up. On Tuesday he does and on Friday my mom does it. So that's equal.
Ok so I take care of cooking and grocery shopping on my own, he doesn't really help with that.
But he does most of the laundry, changes the cat litter most of the time, empties and loads the dishwasher, takes out the trash and is in charge of making sure our bills all get paid.
As long as he's home he does bathtime with our son and I put him to bed and tuck him in.
I have our son on Saturday and Sunday by myself for most of the day, but he has him on Wednesday and Thursday all day while I'm at work.
It really is equal - in fact, he might actually do more around the house than I do. So articles like this one that diminish what he contributes to our family - at FATHERS day no less - really offend me.
Not to mention that dads contribute so much more than is quantifiable to the raising of their children. It's documented that kids raised in homes with both biological parents do much better than kids raised by single parents or even with a step parent. Kids need their fathers and it's high time we women sdtop trying to build up our own self esteem and worth by tearing down our men.
I have only one question: who in the world cares about this kind of silly crap?
If this was true..those maids working for the wealthy..are way under paid at $12k per year instead of $60k
Hhhmmm.....wonder if these same people would be OK with child support being adjusted accordingly for what little is hypothetically being lost?
(I already know the answer. Just a thought.)
Oly,
My dad too mostly raises my little half sister and pays for her school, camp sessions, food, and healthcare. He cooks and cleans and does yard work, and her mother doesn't know how to do anything but work at a dead end job and spend money. My dad drops her off at school, works full time, mostly picks her up (her mom gets her about 30-40% of the time), cooks dinner then makes her do her homework and read at night.
Obviously, its not the work you do at home and with kids that make you who you are, but who you are that makes you want to do the work. Some people have no sense of responsibility, and of course then there are excellent parents and homemakers who want to help because they want to. Gender roles are so 1800's.
Plus what are the costs both emotionally and medically if that proverbial spider is a black widow or brown recluse, this is obviously a fembot trying to hijack public sentiment... I'm sorry marriage does not guarantee a financial reimbursement for say; food, shelter, clothing, personal care products, transportation, entertainment, personal luxury items, vacations (with or without children), utilities (waste water, water, electric, heating\cooling, internet, cable); yet there is a profession which gives a financial incentive for a comparable physical intimacy.... it's called prostitution. So either homemakers begin to realize that nobody likes to have to go to work to support them or they recognize that they are simply engaging in legal prostitution; what Tolstoy likened as debauchery in his mockery of marriage in the short story Creutzer Sonata...
Else let me stay home and you go work... Personally I love my kids and I'm with them every minute of time I have, including brushing teeth and story time. I also do the cooking when home and on weekends as well as all of the home care\repair upkeep. I have a wonderful partner who realizes that it is a fair trade off and keeps my boys perfectly entertained and obedient while fastidiously cleaning the corners with a fine tooth brush while being ravenously physically intimate with me and has her weekends to do as she wishes.
The MSM really try hard to divide and inflame. This is such nonsense. My first wife stopped cooking about 5 years into a 24 year marriage that ended in divorce. I worked full time plus a part time job so that she could stay home and raise the kids, even though she had the degree.
She fell in love with naps, and did no housework, and cooked about 4x a week if I was lucky.
After nearly two decades of this, I finally gave up as I was tired of supporting a woman who valued herself, and little more.
While I am sure there are plenty of good women doing good work in and out of the home, this was not my experience.
I can't believe this article has been posted. This is just ridiculous. My husband and I both work full time jobs and take care of all the things equally at home when it comes to cooking and keeping the house straight. $60,000 for a stay at home mom is BS. When those moms get a job to really support her children the way most parents do, by earning an income and taking care of family matters, then maybe that's an article to write about.
What a load. What about the dads that not only kill spiders, but also cook, clean, nurse wounds, teach their children to read, do laundry, vacuum, etc, etc etc!
MANY homes have fathers that do more around the house than this article or study realizes!
I cook every meal at my house, I occasionally do laundry, I don't clean unless it's absolutely necessary. I get yelled at for not doing those things. I watch the baby when I get home, until my wife gets home from work. I fix everything around the house : Appliances, Computers, TVs, AC units, Carpentry, handyman work, lawn care, ect. Men are the unsung heroes in this generation. We do way more than we ever get credit for and yelled at constantly because we don't do "anything" around the house. Basically if I don't clean or do dishes, and it results in my wife feeling like a maid who is taking care of me then I'm a dead beat. All she does is come home from work, complain about how hard her day was, sit on the couch and get glued to a laptop. After that she expect me to be her man-servant, because her day was "too" hard. I'm all for female empowerment but this generation has turned that into a golden ticket to sit on their arse. I work all day too but I still have to work my ass off when I get home. Women want equality then they need to deal with all the @!$%# that comes with it. Instead they just want all the benefits and none of the consequences. Not quite the double standard feminists are always whining about is it?
My wife is college educated professional. That being said she thinks she knows everything but doesn't know how to do anything practical. My wife would let our house fall apart before she did anything to keep it up. She always lays on that line of bull@!$%# about how she could fix anything just as well as man, she just chooses not to. The truth is she won't, because she is afraid of hard work and she also considers anything she doesn't understand a waste of money. I also get to hear about what her father would or would not do, and how much better he is at something than I am. Next time I hear about how much better she could do something or he could do something I'm gonna give her the hammer and then fix myself a sandwich. Experience whatever I was working on would never get done if I left her to do it. Or it would cost me a fortune after she hired somebody to do it. My wife is stubborn as a mule, I made the mistake of "helping" her fix a machine at work....wanted to learn how to fix something but wouldn't listen to any instructions. Had the technical manual in my hand, I fix things for a living, and she had the nerve to tell me that I was wrong and the repair guy she talked told her something else. The diagram plainly showed the guy she called was wrong or she misunderstood him. Told her the whole thing was in really bad shape and needed an overhaul. I let her put it back together and leaked like a submarine, I refused to work on it anymore. I will never try to teach her anything again or fix anything for her after that. I'll not waste my time being ordered around by a novice.
Women of this generation need to get start doing their part.
Would you listen to this f--king baloney...
Most "moms" these days completely phone it in and think that because they have to bring home a paycheck, too, it's excusable.
Cooking? HA. Most women I've dated can't be bothered to do more than whip up some sub-par chicken and veggies from the freezer, or order take-out. As something of a food snob, this bothers me. When I cook, I do it right. I'll spend an hour and a half making dinner, and my ex used to tell me that I was the one who did all the cooking because "I was such a better cook than her!" No, no, you're just lazy. Any dipstick with a cookbook can make a respectable meal.
"Teaching their children to read?" Again, HA! Moms these days throw in a "Baby Einstein" DVD and park junior on the couch, so they can text endlessly on their phones, or waste hours on Facebook. It's pathetic. Most don't even bother with that... they just leave it up to the schools.
"Cleaning." This is crap. Moms use their kids as an excuse to get OUT of all the cleaning. "Honey, I'm so tired, I entertained the kids all afternoon... will you do the dishes, laundry, vacuum, and take out the trash?" And if you don't, you get berated for NOT doing anything in the relationship even though you just came home from busting your ass for 12 hours at work.
"Nursing wounds." Give me a f--king break. Putting a band-aid on is not a skill worth money. Unless mom is administering an IV, monitoring vitals, and conducting physical therapy, there's NO reason this little chore should be monetized.
In my experience, men do FAR MORE around the house than the majority of women, but we just accept it as things that need to be done, and we're not endlessly, endlessly whining for recognition for it.
"Oh, hey national news organization, check it out! I just separated the whites and colors, washed them (even bleached the whites!), dried them, ironed them, and folded them! It took me like all of an hour and a half, most of which was spent watching "The View". TELL THE WORLD HOW MUCH OF A MARTYR I AM.
God damn it sometimes women piss me off.
EXACTLY.
You want to hear something funny?
I just left my girlfriend of several years because I realized she wasn't looking for a relationship, she was looking for a meal ticket.
We moved into a great new home in October. Within a day -A DAY- of moving in, her homeless jobless brother showed up on the doorstep looking for a place to "get back on his feet". I said fine. The weeks went on, and he did nothing but sit on the couch, smoke pot, and watch TV. Every time I brought it up, I was told that I didn't respect family enough and that I was a bad person. At this point, she had a job and was helping support him, so I said nothing.
Then, she lost her job. I shouldered the extra load and housed, fed, and paid the bills for her and her brother, fully expecting her to go get another job. The months wore on. Neither of them got a job. But, remembering what she said about the importance of family and thinking she might be right, I kept my mouth shut. On a daily basis, I would wake up before dawn, go to work, come home in the evening... to find them sitting on the couch doing nothing. So I'd sigh, go in the kitchen and get dinner started. I'd cook a great meal for us all, and then... I'd be expected to do the dishes. So I'd spend another half hour cleaning and drying the dishes.
I would spend hundreds taking her, her three kids (that's right, folks, three kids from her ex-husband) and her brother fun places on the weekend.
So you'd think they'd be kissing my ass for being such a gracious, providing person, right? NOPE. They bitched at me for buying "cheap" laundry detergent. They bitched at me because I didn't go grocery shopping enough. They bitched at me if I forgot to feed the cat before I went to work in the morning. They would get incredibly loud and offensive if I mentioned the fact that neither of them worked or had not contributed a penny to the household in months. AND THEN - her brother moved his new girlfriend in to the house without consulting me. Well, at least she had a job.
So. I left. And I've never been happier.
I hope her brother's girlfriend has fun supporting them.
I hope you were renting......
First, the value of women's work around the house is overstated. Stay at home mom's are not CEO's making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. They are day care workers making $20,000 a year. I'm basing this on another article on the value of women's work.
Second, men's value as handymen are much higher at $60,000 a year, not to mention that they bring home the bacon at a higher salary than most women.
This article is a slap on the face. Its a horrible reminder that men are not valued for their work in the house.
I really think stay at home mom's ( not some mom's who work too) have to put in their share if Dad is the bread winner..but it should be equal in make believe wages if it makes the arguement fair..or divorce will bne sooner then later.
Plus like to see how many of your kids will help you out when in late 80's..I have three siblings and they don't live as close to my mom as I do ( that's why they move far far away from mom)..but that's no reason to not help mom out in other ways!
Come on, people. This is just a cute little thing about how much the average 'duties' of mom and dad would cost if you hired out for every little nit picking thing.
As for who's better, men or women, there's a wide range of both. It's best to really get to know someone first before you move them in or marry them- and I don't mean just physically.
This is part of the democratic party's war on men.
To nothing new here-1200374
Honestly, are you really that dumb? is every freaking thing a political attack?
Go back on your meds, not taking them was a poor choice.
Ah, Tom
Name calling. The last resort rebuttal.
Tom did not resort to name calling, only questioned your intelligence and lifestyle choices, i.e. following a doctors orders or not.
I thought your sarcasm font was in use in your original comment.
Tom,
If you really believe this content is not politically motivated, you are very naive.
Jake,
Really? So calling people idiots, wh*res, f*gs, ret*rds, psychos, in need of medication, etc. are only intelligence and lifestyle questions and not insults? How about calling someone a piece of sh*t? Is that only questioning one's chemical composition? Can you give us an example of "name calling?"
I agree, 1200374..... Most American women want all of the luxury/special things that they traditionally had throughout the years minus (-) some of their household duties, plus (+) something else........all or most of our JOBS! At work they reason, "who needs men?". As long as THEIR MAN has a job, who cares about the rest of them?
While it's not confined to a political party - the war on men is very real. Notice how politically incorrect it is to make a woman the brunt of a commercial joke. It's always the man who is out of touch or out of date or worries to much about the finances to live a little. That's because marketing shows that men are less likely to purchase items in general. I know that's not true in every case, sometimes it's the man who does all the shopping, but overall - marketers know who their market is, and aren't about to offend them.
As for men helping around the house - I would agree with the many posters on this site - there are a lot of men who are no longer living the 50's "ideal" and are truly partners in the cooking, cleaning, and child raising part of the household. Then we also get to kill the bugs, mow the lawn, fix the car, pay the bills, take care of household emergencies, fill out taxes and college applications, deal with plumbers, mechanics, banks, etc., and etc. Then we get told our contributions to the household don't measure up.
Articles like this that contribute to the idea that the contributions of men to the their families aren't as worthwhile as women, really aren't particularly helpful to either men or women.
I have my child 100% of the time and get NO child support!
SHAME ON MSNBC FOR WRITTING THIS RIGHT BEFORE FATHERS DAY
Sorry, the 'War on Women' is coming from the right.
Or did you forget your "/sarc" tag?
"Dads are doing more around the house, but a shift from that 1950s mentality has been slow." Prove it. This is pure rubish.
"A study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics released last year found: “On an average day, 20 percent of men did housework — such as cleaning or doing laundry — compared with 49 percent of women. Forty-one percent of men did food preparation or cleanup, compared with 68 percent of women.” And a 2008 Gallup poll found that women are much more likely to do most of the household chores, while men are primarily taking care of the family cars and doing yardwork."
And.....Done.
I am man enough to admit that my gf does more around the house than I do. I take care of the autos, paint, fix, replace things, etc. but she is typically much busier than I am. She totally makes the house into a warm and cozy home. As a result I am always sweet to her and let her know how grateful I am. I work a 40 hour / week job and she goes to school. She is a fantastic woman and I love her very much.
that's not proof, that is a self reporting statistics without any peer review and self reporting yourself as a self sacrificing mother and pariah doesn't make it so... that type of statistic is baseless because it delves into personal perception based on societal values (values which have and are still being marketed as upper middle class 'ideals'). these same statistics report that more than half of Americans feel that they are doing better than half of Americans... ??? Wonder what self reporting did there...
The statistics quoted seem about right to me. There's lots of men out there who do cook, clean, etc, but then there's also a lot (and more I think) that still don't.
When I wasn't working, I did the laundry, swept the floor, cooked, etc. When I got a job I said she'd miss me doing all that because it left our weekends mostly free of chores. We generally split things when we both worked. She'd cook more often than me (she's more imaginative in that respect), although I still did sometimes, while I'd do more laundry, look after the finances, etc. Now she's not working it's mostly on her plate.
Jake, you missed my point. The conversion has not been 'slow' by any measurable standard.... the statement is subjective because 'slow' is not quantified. I disagree. The conversion has been very fast. Yes, there is some disparity still. Men on average still do less of x, but more of y - and women still do more of x and less of y. The gender roles have changed dramatically since the 50s. In less than a century, thousands (or if you believe in the evolution of man) milliions of years lifestyle building has changed.
My point was that the article portrays the problem as being something todays generations of living men created: If women were at one time responsible for raising children with derelic fathers doing nothing, then women alone had the oportunity to teach thier sons differently. When a person is only willing to find arguements to support thier position they can never see the full picture. IMO: That is the problem with this article: it was written to denegrate men. Such targeting of men as the 'acceptable target for social bashing' will continue until good women realize the harm it does to thier sons and stand up to stop it. Men cannot fix it; we have no power to do such.
Only 69% of the people do house work?
Mabey if woman did not leave the work force they would make the same pay,,,,,but wait you know that
I have never left the workforce for children or marriage. I am a woman. At many of my jobs I was given less pay than men I was more qualified than.
....it doesn't have anything to do with that, really. You will see, as more fathers take an active role in their children's upbringing, will their pay change too??? I doubt it.....
More qualified than. I've heard that line before. I've even said it talking about a unqualified moron who had more seniority. Plenty of women in offices I've worked in have said that. Most of them were glorified call takers or grunt workers. They never worked hard for anything and were the first to stab you in the back. Spent the rest of the day @!$%#ing around talking in the breakroom. They manage to pull away from gossip long enough to do some work and expect to be CEO of the company for all their suffering. Women have a lot to learn about the workplace. I'd say that's partially men's fault for keeping them out for so long but they have a lot of catching up to do.
Many families negotiate a division of labor, and in places where there is yet an assumption of a more traditional division of labor, both parties should be entering the relationship with eyes wide open.
I, too, noticed that some traditional skilled roles for men appear to have been excluded from (or minimized in) the analysis. My eldest daughter graduated from high school this year, and I spent the six weeks prior to the open house (seven days a week, often working 18 hour days between my day job and the home repairs), with only two days off during the entire period, working to renovate parts of the house, and to spruce up others. I played the roles of carpenter, drywaller, plumber, painter, electrician, and decorator, in addition to serving as van driver, part-time cook (not just the grill), and otherwise tired fellow.
I do not claim my work to be more valuable than my wife's contributions. We do have a more traditional division of labor in our home (she has been a stay-at-home mom and has recently returned to school to pursue a career in genetic counseling, while I work full time and am the sole wage earner), so the fact that I can show up to work well-dressed and on time is largely thanks to her commitment and efforts. I just believe that the kinds of tasks most men perform around the home (in households with the more traditional division of labor) require periods of relatively intense effort with more down time between tasks, while women in such homes have a steady grind of recurring chores.
I believe it would benefit all of us to cease focusing on how we perceive the other side to have it, and to focus instead on appreciating what they do for us, what we accomplish together, and the reasons that brought us together in the first place.
Well put HikingStick.
HikingStick: Eloquent :)
I agree, my wife and I are in a similar marriage and it works very well for us.
Thank you for your common sense and the way you calmly state your position, Hiking Stick. (Great name, by the way.)
I am so tired of people attempting to pit one segment of society against the other. Yes, my husband is spider-killer-in-chief and head trash taker-outer. Yes, I do most of the housework, even though we both have full-time jobs.
I wish everyone would just stop this nonsense, deal with the hand life has dealt them and move on. Sure, when I come home I'm tired and I begin what has been called by some people "the second shift." So what? He's tired, too. Yes, I'm the one that wound up taking care of both sets of aging and sick parents. So what? We are a family, we love each other and if he wants to come home and watch PTI and Dan LeBatard while I'm cooking, what's it to me? He does things that I don't do and I do things that he doesn't do. And we don't keep score.
I honestly don't care if I do more of the household work than he does. He is there for me when I need him in so many other ways that I don't care if he's not the king of household chores or even repair man in residence. Really, the only things he has in his toolbox are a pen and a checkbook. But I never doubt that he loves me and people don't stay married more than 30 years by counting number of hours each person puts in to make a household run smoothly.
Our house is a no whining zone and I like it that way.
Housewives back in the 1950's were extremely depressed, and many are still so.... Gender roles stifle women's pursuit of happiness and women often give more priority to their biological clocks. The time is slowly approaching for women when they can have both a fulfilling career AND children, whereas men can keep having kids till they're 60.... Such a shame.
I am a full-time working mother, and I hate housework. I have a brain, I was not put on this planet to wipe floors and buts. I have to have a 50% division of domestic labor to be compatible with life. Do I get 50%, oh hellll no!. So the house is a mess and my husband obviously doesn't care because if he did, he would clean it.
Aw gee. What about taking out the garbage once a week?
Wow, my son and I do 90% of the cooking, all of the yard and house work and most of the inside cleaning as well. I like to think that we have created a form of domestic bliss for my wife since she has little left to do around the house. I also work 2 full time jobs from 6am until dark 7 days a week, so don't think I am a stay at home dad. These studies must have been done by groups funded by Oprah.
2 FT jobs and you come home to do domestic chores? I hope that your wife work outside the house. Otherwise you either really appreciate your wife, or you're whipped. (possibly both).
jim
Wow, your son must do virtually all of the house stuff...otherwise you're just exaggerating (lying?)
Women always play the martyr. Doesn't matter what you do for them or say it's never enough. Life's always too damn hard. Men understand this and just deal with it. So you had to wash the dishes? Big deal, I cooked it. So you had to clean up after the dog? So what, you brought it home.
The concept of responsibility is lost on every generation post feminism. We started doing more and women started doing a lot less. Ladies it's time to quit crying and deal with it.
Now please go make me a sandwich.
You are right, It would benefit most of us except the ones who need to cause the rift because that's how they make their living.
In and of itself man bashing is a trillion dollar industry.
I just spent 3 days in 90 degree weather helping another father put in some landscaping that his wife wanted done. Quoted cost $15,000. We did it for about a tenth of that. His wife did a bit of grocery, cooked a meal and made coffee. Went out with friends and passed judgement every so often. I guess the 3 days of work was only wotht $1,500.?
I also note that the author of this article is a noted man basher with the number of articles she contributes with a feminist slant.
Also . the opening says killing a spider or cooking dinner ( lets see, cost of a meal versus the cost of an exterminator) . On the Friday night (about 10:30 pm) after a day in the sun, having moved several thousand pounds of screenings and bricks, my neighbor (a female calls) "Hi, what are you doing"? "Realxing, getting ready for bed", I say. she says, I need your help, Ann, (her next door neighbor (no husband)) has a bat in her family room, can you help her?
Go over, take it outside ( what fun) and she then says " At times like this it might be worth having a man in my house"
Guess what happens the next time she needs anything?
Appropriate response:
- I'm not certified to move a bat from inside a domicile of less than 30,000 square feet and consisting of fewer than 2 belfries.
"At times like this it might be worth having a man in my house"" ...It's obvious WHY she does not "have a man in her house"....next time she can call animal control to remove it.. sounds like she has some bats in her belfries....
Another worthless article with the only intention of causing people to get upset.
Lame article, i do just as much if not more around the house, make more money and pay all the bills ...typical liberal garbage
JayMAN,
In your opinion, you do as much if not more.
As the article stated, MEN still make more money than women, and therefore, WOULD pay all the bills.
How is this liberal garbage if it just stated everything you already do???? *gasp* Are you garbage?
Naw, it's 50 / 50 or GTFO. My day doesn't stop until the baby is in bed. Our biggest gripe is that women think washing the dishes is war crime punishable by a tribunal at the Houge and men don't do anything around the house, even if there is a witness.
It's like if a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it does it make a sound? If a man washes a dish and his wife isn't around to see it, it didn't happen. If we do get any credit it is forgotten before the next commercial break.
My wife only recently started making less than me, and only slightly less at that. I've tried to tell her she needs to start looking for a new job with higher pay. She doesn't have the patience to send out resumes. She still pays a much smaller share of the bills than me. She works 3 days a week at at most around 14 hours a day, then off for 4 days. She asked for that schedule. I work all week and pay 60 percent of the bills. Somehow her day is always harder than mine. I do everything around the house but it's never enough. Women will always find something to complain about, nagging is hard wired into their DNA.
What a bunch of garbage just like the evaluation of what a woman's worth is.
So since I am a single father of 4, who works a fulltime job and 3 part-time
plus do the work of a mother and a father, I must be worth over
$100,000. Eve Tahmincioglu and salary.com are idiots to even write stuff like this. No
one care because being a mother or a father pays no monetary compensation for both. So to write this stuff is writing in fantasyland and in reality no one cares.
The payment to a mother and a father comes in raising good, moral children
who can take care of themselves and support their families when they become
adults. To teach kids love and respect for each other; to be patriotic to this
country and defend its freedoms if needed. You raise kids like that, then that
is payment itself.
You, oda526, are priceless.
what does it matter, dumb article that just divides husband and wife
Here we go again with the feminist propaganda BS....what a crock.
All I can say is I do the cooking in the house (my wife couldn't cook an egg). I do 80% of the laundry (my wife will only do it in when my job sends me out-of-town), I'm the landscaper/gardener, I'm the plumber, the electrician, the carpenter, the mechanic and IT support in the house. The only housework my wife regularly do is clean the house and even with that I help her move furnitures around. I even help the kids with their homework. If that's only worth 36K I will gladly hire somebody to that for me.
This "study" is pure garbage. If you want to compare apples to apples, then take a full time, stay at home dad and compare his "value" to a full time, stay at home mom. Dads that only take out the trash and cut the grass on weekends spend the vast majority of their time in the workforce earning the income that pays for essentials like a house for instance. How valuable is that?
What a stupid article. But it fits in well with man-bashing for Father's Day.
My hubby works full time and I take care of 75% of the house and 90% of the kids. The other 25% of the household chores are taken care of by my husband and the kids because 1) I have girly hands/arms and can't do the heavy lifting required + back and neck injuries which chronically flare up and 2) allowing my sons to have household responsibilities makes them more independent young men and there's no way in hell that they're leaving home in a few years to expect a woman to take care of them. That crap is just not happening. Today's women would rather punch a guy than put up with sexist garbage.
Hubby does get annoyed from time to time at my limitations but I try to make up for it to him in other ways. For example: I TRY to get all the yelling done with the kids before he gets home but sometimes it doesn't work out that way. So instead of jumping at him to fix things with the kids as soon as he gets home I give him a thirty minute breather so he can collect himself mentally and have some space. THEN he unloads a can of Daddy-Encouragement-To-Behave on their butts. He backs me up and I do what I can to relieve what stress I can from him.
And fixing things around the house? I play the role of a helper and gopher. I do what I can.
Compromise.
We alternate shopping trips so one of us doesn't get so burned out physically with all the weekend running around because we can't do it during the week.
I liken my 'job' at home as a real job, just not with the financial benefits. I am a Director and Coordinator. I work eighteen hour shifts I just don't get paid for it. He does. But also, when he's home he also works on his other side job which I help him with. So we're both working seven days a week.
I do still think that the gender roles are too well written into our culture but it will get better with time and patience. As long as we teach our children to be independent they will expect that from their future mates and will learn how to compromise on the workload without resentment building. It's hard work.
I'm guessing the ones who call it dumb or dont' like it are the ones who are being portrayed in this study (i.e. truth hurts). I can honestly say that mowing the lawn once every two weeks is not equilivent to doing mulitple load of laundry every week, vaccuuming, cleaning bathrooms, dinner etc. And the auto maintenance...WHAT? I take my car in to have the oil changed and the maintenance done. Oh yes, i also work full time. So in my house...it IS still closer to the 1950's than the 2010's.
Sorry you made a poor choice in your spouse. Mine does at least 1/2 of the housework as well as working full time.
I do both, laundry and mowing... I'll take laundry ANY DAY
but tell me, if tires blows out on a busy highway, do YOU change it?
Who climbs the ladder to clean the gutters? Who checks out the place every time there's a "bump in the night" How much is personal home security worth? Also, if ids are in school or in day care... a woman is NOT providing 100% of the responsibility. If women had to pay men for everything they did, trust me... as a contractor... it be more like 100K a year, not 20K
You "have" the oil changed? Next time, go to the auto parts store and buy a filter, and some oil. Then go home and jack the car up, find where the filter is remove it and remove the drain plug. Install the filter, the plug and new oil. This is just about the easiest job on a car that there is. Oh yeah, then you must dispose of the oil in an environmentally accepted manner.
"Have the...." You need a reality check.
As husband and Dad, here are my weekly duties:
mow, trim, and take care of shrubs and trees 2.5 hrs
clean pool, add chemicals, maintain pool pump 45 mins
work and commute 60 hrs
assist with kids' homework 3 hours
pay bills 30 mins
clean kitchen and put dishes in dishwasher nightly 1.5 hrs
wash own clothes 30 mins
walk dogs 1 hr
maintain two cars 30 mins
stop by grocery store as requested 30 mins
I don't know what planet this insurer lives on. I live on planet work.
And the purpose of this article is what exactly??? Would MSN print a piece entitled "Moms Duties Worth Less"? What about a house that has 2 Dads? Would this house be worthless altogether? I thought I'd ask, since this is an issue that you're so eager to jam down our throats as well....
As a father, I teach my sons valuable life skills from coaching sports to working with me at my business and doing complicated projects around the house. Also,l since I'm an engineer, I am uniquely qualified to help the kids with all of their math and science homework. Things my wife is happy that I do. In my house, we all have equal value and no one is any less appreciated than the other. My kids also have chores they do on a daily basis to spread the burden.
This is just more MSN crap to bait the so-called "War on Women".
These numbers are based on several false assumptions. At best they grossly overestimate the market value of each of these jobs. Clinical psychologist? Really? Last time I checked that required an advanced degree and licensure to earn that rate. CEO? Please. CEO of what? Nothing of what my wife or I do in our home overlaps with the duties of a Chief Executive Officer since we bought our house. This amounts to using a questionnaire in a magazine to find your perfect mate or taking a 10 question online IQ test. A 5c circus game.
We need an affirmative action program to close the gender pay gap between men and womens housework...even if you do less than the next man we should not let society punish you for being lazy...yeah that's the ticket
I've got a 2-word response to women who enjoy writing articles like this, and it ain't, Let's dance.
What a stupid article
It's no surprise this article was written by a woman. If she wants to cut the lawn, weedwack, and blow 3 times a week be my guest. It's hard work! We need a clear definition here of what "Cooking" and "Cleaning" is. If she's making Hamburger helper while checking her Facebook, that is NOT cooking! If all she does is run a vacuum a couple times a week, that's is NOT cleaning. Usually that's not the case, but it needs to be said cause who knows WHAT they interviewed in these "Gallop polls".
Regardless, this article highlights a lot of things except one that's obvious to MANY: Running a house (properly) is a full time job, and the 50's HAD IT RIGHT as far as the workforce is concerned. My wife would kill EVERY single person in her office for the opportunity to "just be a housewife". One income was enough to support a family comfortably. Now the cost of living has gone up and the pay down (per inflation) by half. We only "have more stuff" because it's gotten cheaper to make. That whole "Woman's lib" thing was a SHAM to pit us against each other and make us work 2-3x as hard for half the pay. It's great that woman now have more opportunity to work with less barriers, but now it's really no longer a CHOICE. Who suffers the most? OUR CHILDREN! We've traded quality of life for quantity of stuff that we never have TIME to use anyway! Even the dog gets fat cause there's no one to walk him!
So go back to the fifties. Your house should be half the size it is now. You should only have one car. You should not have air conditioning. If you go on vacation, no cruises or amusements parks, go camping for a weekend. When you get married have a cake and punch reception at the church and then spend a few days at Niagara Falls for your honeymoon.
Wish I could! I don't have a large house. It was built in the early 60's. Not much land either. Not even 1/4 acre. I grew up with no AC, not a big deal. Rarely go on vacation or to amusement parks, never been on a cruise (can't afford it!). Our wedding was so cheap, my own wife decided to MC and play it with her wedding band. My honeymoon was a weekend get away within 100 miles of home. So what would I be missing out on again?
It would be nice if families could survive on one income and allow one parent (mom or dad) to stay home and take care of the kids and house. That, I think, is the part you may be missing. Whether it's stay-at-home-mom or stay-at-home-dad, it really doesn't matter. One parent should be able to be at home tending to the rearing and education of the kids. We wonder why they're getting fat, stupid, and disrespectful: no one's at home during the day to kick them out of the house.
What some people are missing is that a relationship is not always 50/50 and that is borne out by some of the comments in this forum. There are many reasons for this that I am not going to get into. Those who have made the commitment to raise the kids, pay for the house, car and whatever else, take care of the house and property, run the kids around to their respective after-school activities and the myriad other things our modern life entails have their work cut out for them. Some are better at things than others. However a couple makes it work is up to them, and if it is not working real well one would hope they can find the time to discuss like adults (no screaming or name-calling) and regroup.